Temporal networks are bad, it is fine for Twitter to go away
Social networks are generally organized by mapping one of a handful of communication phenomena. Affinity networks became Facebook and to some degree Instagram. Browsing curated displays became Pinterest. Texting evolved from paging, through messaging, and into Snapchat. We don’t flip channels anymore at night, we flip through TikTok (for a while youtube did this but now is collapsing under the weight of google). Job seeking with LinkedIn. The benefits and drawbacks of each platform are distinct and are studied as such (thus why your university has a Communication school or college). Twitter is a social network that maps temporality which would include both chronos (the procession of things happening in time) and kairos (time appearing as a special point). Here are the arguments:
A. Twitter offered a simulacrum of public opinion. Baudrillard’s take on Disney Land has nothing on Twitter where so many reporters and opinion leaders came to believe they were encountering some kind of aggregate of real opinion, not a perfect world to trap them. Although I don’t want to sign-on to Baudrillard at 100% the progression of the life of Twitter in public culture roughly follows. This is to say that there was something real in Twitter that has been replaced by masks, distortions, simulations, and eventually an entire self-sustaining economy of symbols. In 2007, Twtr promised that people at SXSW would “never be bored again.” It succeeded, and thus became completely boring.
Early Twitter had the role of the sacrament for journalism, here are more new facts on the ground, the magic of 2009. Then Twitter became a threat as intermedia agenda setting challenged institutions of power (see #metoo). Our Sorcerer was the former President, who was in no way reflecting reality. And now we are here in the simulation that runs alongside massive Ponzi token operations. Avatars with glowing eyes are former social agents, accepting their role as non-player characters in the simulation.
B. Kairos is exhausting. Temporality includes both chronos and kairos. As Zucker discovered at CNN, kairos sells more ads, so make it a moment as often as you can. I was investigating a sudden surge of attention toward a celebrity that was unfair and nearly defamatory, it made little sense, why could a single mean post from a low follow account somehow get huge? Because something about a K-Pop band using the same word was happening. The machine needs Kairos. The design populates a “what’s happening” box even when nothing is happening. Never will the platform read: yawn, go outside.
C. Twitter is too easy for researchers. The API is insidious. Describing a hashtag was a thing a decade ago, it is not the future. All the studies in the pipeline aren’t gone, they just need to describe nomothetic linkages, not case studies.
D. The system does not map communication phenomena. The strengths and weaknesses of other platforms flow from the communication they map. For Facebook, the magic was lost when the absurdity of family replaced youthful connection (you left home for a reason). Instagram is being drowned by instrumental use (models and MLMs). If the kairoitc temporality function is the heart of Twitter, it is done better by the New York Times. If the opinion concentration function is off the table then I guess it makes sense that it is just a place for people to be super mean to celebrities for the hopes that they also become celebrities. Let’s keep in mind though, that yelling at celebs along the street in Hollywood was on the level of Bat Boy.
E. Static Prevails, the echos overwhelm the voice. Yesterday, one of my favorite follows was retweeted by a famous person and for the first time they were swarmed by bots. So much of what twitter has been is an attempt to stabilize a signal against infinite noise. The plan for Twitter is to allow noise to surge. I think there is real existential value for this signal to be lost into the static if only so that we might have a public philosophical moment about precious, fleeting, meaning. What shall I do without my doomscroller? Emeil Live reruns are on the DABL network, there I just made your life a lot better.
